Hi Rob,
Yes I've used dipoles before. But dipoles (horizontal) are not inherently quiet antennas. They are only "more quiet" where the majority of signals present on a given band are vertically polarized.
In general, there are two electronic types of antennas. Voltage point and current point. Dipoles and all vertical type antennas are in the voltage point family and are considerably more "noisy" than current point types. Two common examples of current point antennas are loops and off-center fed dipoles such as the G5RV and Carolina Windoms. I use a long horizontal loop cut for 80 meters, and it works on all bands 80 and above up to 6 meters. It has natural resonant areas in 80,40,20,17,15 and 11 meters and reaches 10 and 6 with a good tuner. It will not operate on the 60 meter band in 5 mhz without a full range outboard antenna tuner. There is tons of info on the net regarding loops, G5RV and C. Windoms. Simple to build wire antennas.
A horizontal dipole, will work just fine for local contacts but the other station you're talking with must also be using a horizontally polarized antenna to achieve any distance. Otherwise you're working against a 90 degree polarization mismatch which will cut your distance working ability down more than 50%.
Straight-strung "flat-top" dipoles are also largely bi-directional. They get out equally front and back but will have a null area going off each end. So if you use one, you need to decide which two main directions are most important to you and string the thing up for those directions. If you most need to talk north and south, then the ends of the antenna need to be tied up east and west.
I use a loop because, particularly in a square shape, and largely so for a rectangular and triangular shapes, they will have a mostly omnidirectional pattern. The other factors being an all-bands-in-one type and they are more quiet against man made noise being a current point type antenna. Loops work on all the main bands above the lowest one it is cut for, and up to somewhere near 50 mhz.
Like 7732GS said, a dipole can also be put up with only one elevated tie off point, the middle, making it into an inverted V shape. This will tend to make the radiated pattern somewhat more omnidirectional but will also reduce the bandwidth. It will be important to make both the legs as close to an exact 45 degree angle as you can and both leg ends should be the same distance off of the ground, to help achieve the best desired results.
Wire antennas are a staple of many hams. They are cheap and easy to build and put up, and are stealthy. Very hard to drive by your house and even seen one. People have trouble spotting my 270 foot long 80 meter loop, which is attached to the top of my house and runs around the backyard, even when standing in my yard and I'm pointing it out to them. Even new copper tarnishes very quickly and shiney new copper will turn a dull brown in just a few weeks outside.
